MOVIE CENTRAL AND THE MOVIE NETWORK JUMP INTO JANUARY WITH ALL NEW SHOWTIMEPROGRAMMING FEATURING CALIFORNICATION, SHAMELESS AND EPISODES

Shameless and Episodes debut, followed by season four of Californication

Series stars include David Duchovny, Matt LeBlanc, William H. Macy and
Emmy Rossum

TORONTO, Dec. 16 /CNW/ - Corus Entertainment's Movie Central (Western Canada) and Astral's The Movie Network (Eastern Canada) are ringing in 2011 with a new and exclusive slate of
first-run Showtime programming with the return of Californication, and the debut of brand-new buzz-heavy series Shameless and Episodes. Airing back-to-back, the three series will anchor the Monday night
line-ups on Movie Central and The Movie Network beginning Monday, January 10 at 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.

Executive produced and created by David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik, Episodes is a new seven-part, half-hour comedy series starring Matt LeBlanc, as
Matt LeBlanc. When husband-and-wife writing team Sean and Beverly set
out to reproduce their British TV hit for an American network, all of
their worst fears come true as Hollywood lives up to its reputation for
absurdity. After being cast in the starring role, LeBlanc takes the
lead in deviously twisting their beloved series into a terrible cliché,
while testing the couple's marriage with diversions and temptations.
Also starring Stephen Mangan, Tamsin Greig, John Pankow, Kathleen Rose
Perkins and Mircea Monroe. The series is a co-production between
Showtime in the U.S. and BBC in the U.K.

Back for a fourth season, Californication stars David Duchovny in his Golden Globe®-winning role as self-destructive, brutally honest and hedonistic
novelist Hank Moody who struggles to raise his teenage daughter Becca,
with on-again, off-again girlfriend Karen. In the new season, Hank will
have to deal with the fall-out from his one-night stand with
then-underage, pseudo-step-daughter Mia going public, and his epic
legal troubles force him to enlist the aid of hot, high-powered defense
attorney Abby (Carla Gugino) to keep him out of the big house. Season
four guest stars include: Rob Lowe, Michael Ealy, Zoe Kravitz, Stephen
Tobolowsky, Callie Thorne, Addison Timlin, and rocker Tommy Lee. Also
starring Madeleine Martin, Natascha McElhone, and Madeline Zima.

New episodes of Californication, Shameless and Episodes will be simulcast on The Movie Network and Movie Central's High
Definition channels and will be available on demand following their
network premieres. New episodes of Shameless will also be available on The Movie Network OnLine following their
premieres.

Movie Central is a commercial-free premium pay TV service available in western
Canada. Movie Central premieres the best in Hollywood, international
and Canadian films across nine 24-hour movie channels, including
dedicated high-definition feeds, a Movie Central On Demand service and
exclusive HBO content on HBO Canada. Movie Central is also the first
window for Showtime content and home to cutting-edge Canadian series. A
major force in the Canadian independent film and television production
industry, Movie Central, through The Corus Made with Pay Fund, supports
many critically-acclaimed and award-winning Canadian series and films.
Visit the Movie Central website at www.moviecentral.ca.

Movie Central is owned by Corus Entertainment Inc., a Canadian-based
media and entertainment company. Corus is a market leader in specialty
television and radio with additional assets in pay television,
television broadcasting, children's book publishing and children's
animation. Experience Corus on the web at www.corusent.com.

The Movie Network is a pay television service available in eastern Canada. With premiere
access to Hollywood hit movies, new and exclusive HBO content,
critically-acclaimed Showtime series and first-rate Canadian
programming, this pay-television service presents Canadians with some
of the best television entertainment available. The Movie Network
service includes five 24-hour multiplex channels - M, HBO Canada,
MExcess, MFun! and MFest - which deliver diverse and entertaining
programs in an uncut and commercial-free television environment. The
Movie Network also offers The Movie Network HD, HBO Canada HD, MExcess
HD and MFun! HD, four dedicated high-definition channels providing
hundreds of titles in HD; The Movie Network OnDemand, a Subscription
Video On Demand (SVOD) service, available in select areas across
eastern Canada; and, TMN OnLine an Internet-based content streaming
service available to BellTV, Rogers and Videotron subscribers. For more
information, please visit www.themovienetwork.ca .

The Movie Network is a member of the Astral family. Astral (TSX:
ACM.A/ACM.B) is one of Canada's largest media companies. It operates
several of the country's most popular pay and specialty television,
radio, out-of-home advertising and digital media properties. Astral
plays a central role in community life across the country by offering
diverse, rich and vibrant programming that meets the tastes and needs
of consumers and advertisers. To learn more about Astral, visit astral.com.